The Australian Olympic team is heading to the Paris Games with its highest-ever proportion of women — 55.6%.
According to the Australian Olympic Committee on Wednesday, back in 1924 when the Olympics were last held in Paris, there were no women on the team.
This time around, out of the 460-member team representing Australia across 33 sports, 256 are women. This marks the third consecutive Summer Olympics where there are more women than men on the Australian team.
This team is the third-largest that Australia has sent to compete at Olympics held overseas, following Tokyo 2020 (486) and Athens 2004 (482). Despite Australia’s population of 27 million being relatively small, the AOC expects the Australian delegation to be the third-largest in Paris.
Among the athletes are ten Indigenous Australians, including NBA star Patty Mills who becomes Australia’s first five-time Indigenous Olympian.
The Australian team is projected to win 48 medals in total, including 13 golds, according to a forecast by Nielsen’s Gracenote Sports.
Chef de mission Anna Meares, a two-time Olympic champion in track cycling, expressed admiration for Australia consistently participating across such a wide range of sports.
“I think we may take it for granted, but we truly excel in international competition,” Meares commented.
